1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a paper feeding cassette and a paper feeding device.
2. Description of Related Art
Paper feeding cassettes are provided to conventional image forming apparatuses, such as printers, copiers, facsimiles, and multi-functional machines. Such a paper feeding cassette is detachably disposed on, for example, a printer body in a printer, that is, on an apparatus body. Paper sheets are placed on the paper feeding cassette and then the paper feeding cassette is attached on the apparatus body. This allows the paper sheets to be fed one by one to a conveyance path by using a hopping roller.
For this reason, in the paper feeding cassette, the leading end, both edges on the right and left sides, and trailing end of each paper sheet are respectively positioned by a front face wall, movably-disposed side guides, and a tail guide movably-disposed on the paper feeding cassette. In addition, the leading end of the paper sheet is pressed against the hopping roller by a paper-stacking plate disposed so as to be swingable and at a predetermined position inside the paper feeding cassette (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2003-95446).
However, in the above-described paper feeding cassette, in a case where a paper sheet is raised toward the hopping roller, or where a paper sheet is brought into pressure contact with the hopping roller, the leading end of the paper sheet may be stuck with the front face wall to cause a resistance load or the leading end of the paper sheet and the front face wall may rub against each other to cause a frictional load. In such a case, force to press the paper sheet against the hopping roller, that is, pressing force, cannot be sufficiently secured. As a result, force to feed the paper sheet to the conveyance path becomes smaller, and a normal paper feeding operation cannot be performed stably.